'Rock Heads' Ran Newspaper That Panned 'Gettysburg Address'

An undated photo provided by The Patriot-News showing a bit of the 1863 editorial in which President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was dismissed. The newspaper (then known as The Patriot & Union) referred to Lincoln's words as "silly remarks."

That's right, in November 1863 the anti-Lincoln Patriot & Union (as the newspaper was then known) wrote about those who had spoken five days before at the ceremony on Gettysburg's battlefield. Of Lincoln's speech it said:

"We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of."

"I hope you are taking our 'retraction' in the spirit we intended, which was to have a little fun with a less-than-stellar chapter of our newspaper's history ... Really, this isn't a question of journalism ethics, as would be the case with a serious retraction — it was more a way of using the 150th anniversary to say, with a wink, 'Gee, can you believe what rock heads ran this outfit 150 years ago?' "

If you haven't read Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in a while, here's a link.